Etc...

August 27, 2004

By Compiled from wire service reports by Robert Kilborn and Ross Atkin

But don't they get oily?

Do you like to wear fine woollens? Then it may interest you to know that before your garments are made, some of the sheep from which they might have come were dressed in designer apparel, too. Yes, you read that correctly. The China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. has donated 90,000 jackets to the main production base for the fleece that goes into Ordos wool. Why? To protect the critters from the dust storms that blow in each winter and spring from the deserts and from mosquitos in the summer.

Aw, no, not you guys again!

"Nothing seems to have been learned," sighed Coast Guardsman Steve Bird after his unit rescued a father and son in an inflatable boat that had drifted out to sea last week off Somerset, England - for the second time in 24 hours. The two had ignored the guardsmen's warning about dangerous tidal conditions after the first incident.

Little league showcase: not just for boys anymore

On Sunday, two teams - one American, the other from the "international" division - will square off in South Willamsport, Pa., before a national TV audience in the championship game of the Little League World Series. It will mark the culmination of the 12-team tournament in its "Year of the Woman." It's being called that because Maria Pepe, whose successful 1972 lawsuit forced Little League Baseball Inc. to let girls play, threw out the first pitch of the tournament. Three other females are being inducted into the Little League Hall of Excellence, and, for the first time, the rosters of two World Series teams include girls. The cities represented by the 10 most recent World Series winners:1993 Long Beach, Calif.1994 Maracaibo, Venezuela1995 Tainan, Taiwan1996 Kao-Hsuing City, Tapei1997 Guadalupe, Mexico1998 Toms River, N.J.1999 Osaka, Japan2001 Maracaibo, Venezuela2002 Louisville, Ky.2003 Tokyo- AP/factmonster.com